Australian singer-songwriter Grace Cummings has released “On and On” the first single to be taken from her upcoming third album Ramona to be released April 5th via ATO Records/[PIAS]. Cummings has been quietly making a name for herself with a string of impressive releases, praised by the likes of The Guardian, Pitchfork, NME, GoldFlakePaint, and NPR for her riveting, powerful voice and intense, blues-inflected songwriting. Ramona - her finest and most captivating work yet - was recorded in Topanga Canyon with acclaimed producer Jonathan Wilson (Angel Olsen, Father John Misty, Margo Price) puts Cummings’ rich vocals and dramatic storytelling front and centre.
Today’s track release comes with an accompanying video featuring the singer bathed in amber light - directed by James Gorter.
Ramona is a work of raw truth rendered in its most beautiful form. In a departure from the self-produced approach of her 2019 debut Refuge Cove and its 2022 follow-up Storm Queen—the Melbourne-based artist dreamed up a lavishly orchestrated sound that fully accommodates the depth and scope of her vocal prowess. With its visceral reflection on grief and self-destruction and emotional violence, Ramona brings a stunning new grandeur to Cummings’ music while refusing to soften or temper its humanity.
Recorded at Wilson’s Fivestar Studios in Topanga Canyon, Ramona came to life in collaboration with a stacked lineup of musicians that includes harpist Mary Lattimore and string arranger/multi-instrumentalist Drew Erickson (Weyes Blood, Mitski, Lana Del Rey). “I wanted everything and the kitchen sink on this record, to make it as big and dramatic as possible and show a whole range of colours,” says Cummings. “Jonathan and all the other musicians are so incredibly good at what they do, and so considered in their approach, but there was also a sense of fun and lightness in the studio that allowed me to be myself.” Featuring Cummings on guitar and piano and Wilson on guitar, drums, banjo, and organ, Ramona ultimately serves as a dazzling showcase for the voice once hailed by The Guardian as “powerful enough to pound granite into dust.”
Also an accomplished stage actor, Cummings imbues all of Ramona with an unbridled theatricality—an element on glorious display in the album’s title track. “I wrote that at a time when I wasn’t doing well and had the sense that other people saw me as a weak little bird,” says Cummings, who mined inspiration from Bob Dylan’s 1964 song “To Ramona.” “I didn’t want to be myself so I decided to be Ramona instead, full of intensity and melodrama. For me there’s a lot of safety in putting on a costume or a mask; sometimes it feels like the only way to express any true honesty or vulnerability.”
Cummings hopes that Ramona might provide her audience with a similar sense of relief and release. “A lot of the time the only way for me to process what’s happening in my life is to write about it,” she says. “So it’s a deeply personal record. But I hope that people come away from this album feeling like the songs were written just for them. Because they were, in a way. Watching the deeply personal evolve into something that’s shared by so many different people makes me feel less lonely in this world."
TRACKLISTING:
1. Something Going ‘Round
2. On And On
3. I'm Getting Married To The War
4. Love And The Canyon
5. Work Today(and Tomorrow)
6. Everybody's Somebody
7. Common Man
8. Without You
9. Ramona
10. A Precious Thing
11. Help Is On Its Way
12. On And On (Radio Edit)
